Hey gang!
Recently I started having an issue with green hair algae. (I think?) I've had my tank for 4 years now, and have always maintained the parameters pretty well so I've never run into this before.
A month or so ago I noticed some of my coraline bleaching white, and read here that bleaching can be a normal thing so I never really gave it too much thought...I still have LOTS of it growing in new places on the glass, etc., and it's a vibrant purple.
I noticed today after coming home from work that I now have a lot of green (what looks like hair) algae all over a LOT of my
LR. It's started a few weeks ago, and I have cut down on my lighting cycle most days, from about 8 to maybe 4-5). My nitrates are at 0ppm, and my phosphates are somewhere between .1ppm and 0. Calcium, ph and alk are all in line as well. Now I have been slightly lax on my water changes, but am still doing about 20-25% a month which should be ok, no??
I only have 1 clown and 1 damsel in the tank, as well as maybe 16 or so snails and maybe 8 hermies. I only feed once a day..sometimes every other day, and not a lot when I do. So there shouldn't be too heavy a bio load right?
I have a small HOB fuge that I have a decent amount of chaeto in, as well as having a rather large amount of it tucked between the
LR and back of the main tank. I try to prune it out every so often as lots of junk seems to come out of it when I move it around that clouds the water for a bit. I've not wanted to outright get rid of all the chaeto cause it's loaded with pods, a number of tiny brittle stars and a good number of bristle worm colonies.
I also have a good amount of PhosBan in one of those flow-through tubes, which is actually feeding my HOB fuge. I've had it running for about a week now.
My questions are these.....
Is having that much chaeto in the tank not good? It seems to be thriving and everything I've read here says that's good, but it also seems full of fuzzy-ness that clouds up when I move it around...is that detritus?? I've not seen pics of chaeto that look like this...kind of fuzzy.
Also...the clown and damsel have pushed up a good amount of my sand bed on one side of the tank to a depth of about 6 or so inches, as compared to the 2 inches throughout the rest of the tank....can this be a factor?
I'm just wondering what I can do here....nothins much has really changed in my maintenance of the tank, but now I've got all this green growth! Should I take each rock out one by one and scrub the stuff off?? Is that a reasonable option?
Sorry for the long post here...you all have been great in the past here when I've had issues....hope someone can offer some suggestions!
Thanks!
Todd